


Shark Noises for the Unbeliever

by ElasticElla



Series: tumblr drabbles and fics [42]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: F/F, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-19
Updated: 2015-10-19
Packaged: 2018-04-27 04:37:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5034019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElasticElla/pseuds/ElasticElla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vithya doesn’t want to go to the radio internship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shark Noises for the Unbeliever

**Author's Note:**

> first posted [here](http://elasticella.tumblr.com/post/130301562110/happy-polyshipping-day-vithya-doesnt-want-to-go)

Vithya doesn’t want to go to the radio internship. Her reluctance is childish, she knows. But once she goes, she’s an adult, will move into a new apartment with whomever the generator picks for her. The letter had come at dinner, along with a dozen apology roses that now sit on her mother’s dining room table.

“You couldn’t stay in college forever,” her father said, a hand on her shoulder.

(It’s a lie, well-intended but still false. Iris Snow has been studying longer than the records show, has never been forced to change, to leave.)

Vithya doesn’t knowingly sleep, but wakes knowing that she did.

Her bags are all packed, and any remaining hope that the letter was a mistake vanishes. The night has aged her, and the face in the mirror doesn’t belong to her, not yet.

.

Vithya doesn’t remember much of her first day.

She remembers awkward ice breakers, her parents being gone before she left, the heavy weight of a new apartment key slipped into her pocket while waiting for lunch, and her new boss, Cecil stopping her in the hall.

“You’re a new one aren’t you? You still have some of it in your eye, no don’t worry, tomorrow will be better.” He pauses, frowning, “You don’t like fudge do you? No, no, you’ll be fine. You’ll fit right in.”

And after some more empty space, Vithya walked home- she’d never gotten her license, every test turning her down as too cautious to be a safe driver. The key leads her to a fourth floor apartment with a reinforced steel door (at least her mother will be pleased to hear she’s safe enough), and low beats seep out to where she hesitates.

Someone coming up the stairs interrupts her wondering of what exactly would happen if she didn’t go in- would they take a parent hostage or was it more work at the library for a year level offense. Slipping the key in, with a last breath, Vithya crosses the threshold.

She stands still in the doorway, the door slamming behind her loudly.

The girl glares at her, along with a hundred or so beady little bat eyes.

“Uh, hi?”

The girl sniffs. “I am Michelle, and these are my minions.” She pets the baby bat that’s clinging to her sweater, “Cats are  _so_ last season.”

“I didn’t know that,” Vithya says, looking for a place to sit that isn’t inhabited by a tiny bat. “Are they all staying with us?”

“Mhmm,” Michelle purrs, lightly scratching under the baby bat’s chin. “Don’t worry about the mess- they only eat glitter. Our other roommate will be far messier.”

“Thanks Michelle,” a low voice says, and Vithya spots the owner a moment later, beneath the mound of blankets. “I’m Dana, you must be Vithya then.”

“Right,” Vithya says, finally leaving the relative safety of the doorway, and sitting on a chair that only had one bat on it, relocated to her lap. “Do they all have names?”

Michelle nods seriously, “But I don’t know them.”

.

When Dana emerges from the blankets fully, she realizes Dana the roommate is also Dana her fellow intern, and Michelle sneers at them for both working somewhere so common. (‘I’m turning Dark Owl Records into a place so cool, gloves will be a necessity- and not those tacky fingerless ones.’)

There’s only one bed, which isn’t a surprise- the surprise is how comfortably they all fit, even with a warm ever-shuffling and squeaking bat blanket on top. The surprise is how easy it is to sleep through the night, how little Vithya worries for her parents.

Michelle sells her first real album one day,  _Shark Noises for the Unbeliever_ , and kisses her and Dana in victory. They all tumble into bed, and this time their bat blanket hangs from the ceiling, tiny ears tracking their every movement. It should freak Vithya out more, many things should, but she’s grown used to being an adult, even likes it most days.


End file.
